New Yorkers Honeymooning in Paris

My partner and I will be honeymooning in Paris from Friday, October 25 – Wednesday, October 30. We’re staying in the Vendome district next to the Jardin des Tuileries. We’re looking for a handful of dinner recommendations for some very memorable and special meals.

We’re both in our early thirties and coming from New York City. It will be our first time in the city (as adults at least!) Without really knowing what the options are, I would say we’re looking for energetic bistros or brasseries that are distinctly Parisian and showcase the best of the local cuisine. We want to avoid touristy restaurants, or overly expensive restaurants. We’d like to avoid the extremely stuffy and formal restaurants. We’re looking for upscale casual…

We’d like to try both classic French / Parisian cusine, as well as new French cuisine.

We have five dinners in the city (Friday-Tuesday night) - what would your perfect dining itinerary be?

Thank you so much for your suggestions. We’re incredibly excited about this trip!

I recommend Premices, where we dined just last night,thanks to John Talbott. Starters were Cepes for me, and warm fois gras for my husband. Followed by a well prepared pigeon ( we both had that- perfectly cooked rose) For dessert - a warm apricot tart for me and a fig tart for my husband. It was all quite excellent and under €50 pp. Beautifully decorated too with friendly service. Thanks,John!

Note that Le Voltaire and Le Petit Voltaire are radically different scenes. LV is a clubby room serving uncomplicated classic French food, excellent service, not inexpensive. LPV which occupies the other half of the space is a very casual cafe, good for a simple lunch. Nothing to write home about except the view if you are sitting outside and the comparatively low tab. I believe it is only open for lunch.

I'm a little worried by your intention "to avoid touristy restaurants". If you mean cliché-ed tourist traps with mediocre cuisine, your list is safe. If you mean restaurants with a high proportion of tourists, you will be disappointed by most of the restos (with the exception of Prémices and maybe Petrelle, both outside the tourist zones) you have chosen. This is not to say that your restos are unlikeable or of poor quality but just reflects the fact that Paris is the most visited city in the world... just 2.2 million of us locals living mostly in the outer arrondissements vs 30 million (or 60 mill in you count the often clueless suburbanites and folks from the provinces) of you tourists a year mostly concentrated in the central arrondissements. The American preference for early dining makes it even worse... prime time for Parisiens is 9pm during the week and even later at weekends.

"to avoid touristy restaurants".This is a tough issue as P. suggests.Center city, in the guidebooks, popular on CH - hard to find.Three hints to finding them:1. Go outside in inner snail curl (to the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th).2. Eat at places not yet in the guidebooks, NYT or on CH.3. Eat at lunch - prime example, today at Pirouette at lunch I couldn't hear any English, a bit of Japanese and screams (of delight) from French toddlers.

This is why I liked Premices so much-in the 9th, well -priced, calm interior with tables not bunched up against each other, excellent food and not on that -" Josephine chez Dumonet-type" list. I keep on reading about the same 5-10 restaurants-try something new where you don't see people like you coming and going!

We won't eat dinner until around 9:00 or 9:30 - it's the same time we generally eat out in New York. Also, we understand that the areas we will be in are going to have a high concentration of tourists, but, like you said, we're just trying to avoid the traps. There are many restaurants even in Midtown Manhattan that are not "touristy."